


Hide the Fang

by GugTheGoose



Series: Vengeance Vignettes [1]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, OK to share/link to, Spoilers for RQG 165, allusions to past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:06:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28963626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GugTheGoose/pseuds/GugTheGoose
Summary: Sassraa's wanderings on the ship the Vengeance, during RQG's airship arc. Set pre- episode 168
Series: Vengeance Vignettes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140968
Comments: 16
Kudos: 20





	Hide the Fang

_Scene: On The Vengeance, flying somewhere over northern China. Accordion music plays in the background, and the wind rushing past the ship causes a constant low-level draught that cannot be escaped, whichever room one might go to. SASSRAA wakes up._

Sassraa wakes, feeling heavy and warm. They open their eyes slowly, allowing the low light to suffuse their vision, taking in their surroundings. They lie on top of their winter parka, impractical as an item of clothing- not nearly enough pockets or belts- but excellent material for a nest. They have constructed their den in the belly of the ship, hidden between two barrels against a pipe that radiates a soft warmth at all hours of the day. Sassraa pushes herself up, stretches, and peers through a gap in the ship’s hull. Moonlight illuminates her face and she quickly scans the stars, telling her that her shift should be starting in around an hour. Ship work is exhausting, especially when her watches and her sleep cycle don’t coincide, but she can tell that her mind won’t let her return to sleep. She keeps dwelling on the way she’d solved that kitchen plumbing issue yesterday, and how it could have been more efficient, or, conversely, more elaborate. Yes, more elaborate is the way to go; the current fix is just missing something, some vitality, and the ship would probably appreciate her attention. She glances around fondly, realising how she’d thought of her new home as a friend.

Sassraa still suffers from nightmares, with vast spaces filled with glowing eyes; twisting, iron-ribbed, leaking tunnels; looming figures with pointed weapons and ugly smiles. They know their kobold companions are suffering too, although none of them speak directly about what horrors their minds are repressing. Sassraa climbs the steep steps up to the deck and paces, feeling the cool night air on their scales. They have taken to spending at least a little time alone outside each day, just feeling the wind on their face and the space between themself and other people, something they had never really done before Shoin had enslaved them; they had been, like most kobolds, most comfortable in warm, close, softly-lit tunnels. Sassraa wanders to the bow of the ship, to the little makeshift seating area, and finds Tadyka asleep there under a bench, wrapped in her parka, her breath misting in the cold. Sassraa sighs; the Vengeance is in many ways a lovely home, but it is so difficult in a space as small as this to find places hidden enough to sleep without being found. They are about to avert their eyes out of respect, when they notice something small just by Tadyka’s tail.

The moonlight reflects off the object, and Sassraa realises what she is seeing. The fang! She ponders. This would be a perfect opportunity to take it and secrete it somewhere, whilst the majority of the crew are sleeping or busying themselves below decks, but she hesitates. If she takes the fang from its hiding place next to Tadyka, and if Tadyka had placed it there deliberately to hide tomorrow, then Tadyka would know that someone had found her sleeping nook and entered her space whilst she slept. Sassraa thinks longingly about hiding places, and the little gap between those two pipes near the engine, right by where Cel is working on improving the elementals’ housing. Cel would be so excited to find the fang, and then they’d start telling Sassraa all about the intricacies of their project… Sassraa sighs again, their mind briefly flickering to a fragmented dream-memory of thousands of glowing eyes, and straightens reluctantly. Tadyka can keep the fang, this time.


End file.
